The Widespread Enigma Concerning Blue-Star Woman
By Yankton Dakota writer and activist Zitkála-Šá (Gertrude Bonnin). Published in American Indian Stories (1921).
Seventeen Syllables
Acclaimed short story about the immigrant experience of Japanese Americans. From the collection of the same name by Hisaye Yamamoto. First published in 1949.
Riot or Revolt?
Story about civil unrest by African American author Henry Dumas (1934-68). First published posthumously in Echo Tree in 2003.
Everyday Use
Story examining conflict within an African American family by Alice Walker. From the collection In Love and Trouble (1973).
*At the Bottom of the River
Try any of the stories collected in Jamaica Kincaid's At the Bottom of the River (1983). The stories in this collection depict the challenges of a girl's Caribbean childhood, and often focus on mother-daughter relationships.
*Faces at the Bottom of the Well: The Permanence of Racism
Explore Derrick Bell's 1992 collection of fables, allegories, and dialogues about Black struggles, and the permanence of racism, in White America.
Children of the Sea
Love story set during the Duvalier regime by Haitian American writer Edwidge Danticat. From the collection Krik? Krak! (1995).
Octavia's Brood: Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements
Short story anthology from 2015 exploring the connections between radical science fiction and movements for social change.
Try "the river" (Adrienne Maree Brown), "Evidence" (Alexis Pauline Gumbs), "Hollow" (Mia Mingus), "Aftermath" (LeVar Burton), and "Children Who Fly" (Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha).
Old Habits
Ghost story with a difference by Jamaican-born Canadian author Nalo Hopkinson. Published in the collection Falling in Love with Hominids in 2015. E-book.
Books and Roses
Subversive fairy tale by British author Helen Oyeyemi, from the collection What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours (2016). We also recommend the story "Is Your Blood as Red as This?" from the same collection.
*Love Beyond Body, Space, and Time
Read any of the stories from this 2016 collection of Indigenous science fiction and urban fantasy writing focusing on LGBT and two-spirit characters.
The Husband Stitch
Story about marriage and trauma from the award-winning collection Her Body and Other Parties (2017) by American author Carmen Maria Machado.
Belles Lettres
Story told in letters from the 2018 collection Heads of the Colored People by Nafissa Thompson-Spires. Try "The Body's Defenses Against Itself," from the same collection.
How to Pronounce Knife
2020 story by Canadian writer Souvankham Thammavongsa. From the collection of the same name focusing on the lives of Lao immigrants in the Western world. From the same collection, try also "The Universe Would Be So Cruel." E-book.
Love after the End: An Anthology of Two-Spirit & Indigiqueer Speculative Fiction
2020 short story anthology showcasing work by new and emerging 2SQ Indigenous writers from across Turtle Island. E-book.
Try "History of the New World" by Adam Garnet Jones, "How to Survive the Apocalypse for Native Girls" by Kai Minosh Pyle, and Mari Kurisato's "Seed Children."
* = community suggestion